Consul-General of Japan Kuninori Matsuda visits Grand Rapids

Darren Breen photos | The Grand Rapids PressKuninori Matsuda, consul-general of Japan, who is based in Detroit, talks Saturday about the concerns he felt for his family and friends in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami struck March 11

GRAND RAPIDS — Consul-General of Japan Kuninori “Matz” Matsuda was on a conference call with diplomats in Tokyo when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the east coast of Japan on March 11.

Half of the people on the call were cut from the line.

“I realized something terrible happened,” said Matsuda, a diplomat stationed in Detroit who was in Grand Rapids Saturday to talk to people affected by the quake.

Luckily, none of his co-workers was harmed.

He instantly started contacting the families of foreign exchange students and the Japanese citizens living in Michigan and Ohio to offer assistance.

His wife and children were in Tokyo. It was two days before he finally got an email that his family was safe.

“They are familiar with how to deal with disasters in the areas where it hit, and they continue to suffer from the disruption, but they are enduring,” he said.

About 172,400 people have evacuated their homes, many of which are ruined, in the Tohoku region, which includes the Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata and Akita areas.

The fatality count has reached 11,438, and the amount of missing people has surpassed 16,000.
Matsuda is confident the unprecedented earthquake and tsunami in Japan will not offset the world economy in a large way.

While the Japanese government and citizens grapple with the crisis, he said the disaster will be nothing more than a “disruption” that will temporarily lower production levels.

“It will not be a long-term disruption,” Matsuda said. “We are trying very hard to minimize the impact, and Japanese companies in Michigan are adhering to the no lay-off policy here, so local employment will remain unchanged.”

To manage the supply-demand gap, Japanese manufacturers are shifting production needs from damaged areas to western-based facilities, Matsuda said.

More than 60 percent of the Japanese manufacturing facilities in Michigan are automotive.
Most were holding at least a week of worth of inventory when the earthquake and tsunami hit. About four weeks of inventory were already in-transit, so many Michigan businesses have had enough Japanese supplies in the past month.

Electronics and pigment material imported from Japan may experience a shortage in local businesses, Matsuda said.

“The small spare parts made in the Tokyo region are not going be produced on the same level, we have a lot of work to do,” he said.

He predicts production levels should be back to normal by late summer.

“We are glad that the international community has a strong trust in Japan handling the disaster because more foreign investors have been investing in Japan,” Matsuda said.

The past three weeks have felt like years, he said, but he is still looking at future opportunities and hopes to see Japanese investors take more interest in Grand Rapids in the future.